Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125859
Nowice Paul Williams in a radical attitude - so radical, he fell off, seconds later. Jumping big,rocks at the Rancho Story & Pho~s by Lane Campbell ,RANCHO BERNARDO, CAL., MAY 5 Five Novices tied and were called to ride-off In their chase for transfer poin ts, while Bernie Schreiber literally rode off with the Expert class and Greg Lersch put it on the Amateurs. The trial was easy for some, and very difficult for others who c r as h ed heavily on the rocks. Rocks there were, in great profusion, Rich De'laney coming down. The rock that got him is about to snag his front wheel. AJ Betty Odiorne's closed fist indicates, Rich was clean up to this point. 18 along with dollops of deep sand. There were fifteen sec ti o ns strung out on a six mile loop , each placarded Expert, Amateur or Novice in difficulty. Some of th e E xpert se ctions were quite spe c tacular : number Three had a precarious off-cambe r traverse across a broken ro ck face , Five a nd Six were rock-st ep gull y cli mbs. ExpertlAmat eur sect ion Fo urteen had th e Experts rid in g over two gian t bo ulders on a route that requi re d a flying leap between th eir tops, t he n a treacherous drop-o ff an d sharp tum to m ak e the gate. Spectators who cl ustered at Fo urteen got to see some spectacu lar saves as ' riders recovered fro m the drop-off an d pic ked up the front en d in near-vertical wheeling turns (some di d it feet-up to save a " clean::) to plant the m ach in e " between the ex it stakes. The Novice traps looked easier, and we re - pro vided t he rid er kn ew exactly what he was d oing . To clean these sec ti ons, a Novice has to master so me of the basic trials " tricks:' such as running the fro nt w heel up a rock an d ban king off in a cli mb ing tu m, or d oing a wh eelie ,o ff a rock ledge . It's no longer enough to j ust be ab le to go slo w and hang o n. Th e riders who can clean th e Novi ce secti on s are ; about ready to transfer to Am ateur, and so on will . Ron Doster pu t toge the r a 2· 0· 0 to win the No vice clas s. Vin ce Vawter, Matt Parsons, Bob Sincl air, Ken Knapp, and Joe Ige went to Exp ert Trap s 14 .an d 15 fo r a ride -off', three times throu gh each trap. J oe, on his home-brew Saracen, lost his ride -off, but got the award for the best Five of the da y , as he attempted to ride up a six-foot boulder (n ot qui te on co u rse) and wound up perched on top o f it . Joe's little basement special proved to be about the narrowest thing out there, as he managed to regularly wriggle between two ' rocks that everyone else was forced to j ump . Bernie Schreiber's nine poin t ride eclipsed the rest of the Experts, 6-3-0, meaning he cleaned the en tire third loop. Richard Bledsoe and Rich Delaney came in at ,28 each, w ith the tie being broken on twos. Fo r Delaney, it was a ' last-loop crash in Trap Fourteen tha t cost him a clear second. Mark Eggar just nudged out George Smith, 30 each, 24 clean s to 20 . George spent the minutes before the riders' meeting working on the new TL 250 Honda Prototype after bursting a muffler ' seam, frantically re-jecting to compensate for lost back-pressure. Ordinarily, trials checkers don't go out and get all bloody lik e the riders, . but Betty Odiorne gets this week's Purple Heart for the dings and scrapes she sustained after bailing off a rock to • avoid a wayward motorcycle. Results in the Results Section. Andre Plouffe approaches the traverse at Trap Three with visible trepidation. It's a long way down to Andre's left. He made it. National MX Can-Am sabotaged at ApplaChia Natio~al By Jim Gianatsis . BR UCETON MIL LS, W.V ., MAY 5 P ierre K arsmakers h ad to work some fo r his first m oto win in t he 25 0 class a s h e fl ailed his Yamah a across t he rolli ng rough-hewn course of b e autiful Applachia Park. A n easy secon d moto win gave Pi e rre the Ove rall. Gary Jo nes pla c ed secon d Overall on t he factory Can-Am , and Billy Gr ossi too k thi rd on Honda. T hey both had to wo rk fo r th eir pl acings. Mik e Hartwig (Yam) looked like he was go ing to run aw ay with the Open , class a fter smokin g in th e first moto, He was lead ing wh en his scat broke o ff midway through the sec o nd moto. It was the same problem that teammate Pierre Karsmakers enc o un tered the previous week. With Mike forced to c ru ise around in mid-pack, Tony DiS t efano (C Z) took his second National victory. Bryar Holcomb (Bul) was consistent for second Overall ahead of Steve Stackable (Mai). It was perhaps the best racing on the National circu it so far. Over ' 10,00 0 spectators converged on the , remote , West Virginia track. Riders liked the hills and soft loam y dirt, dug up by spinning Itnobbies,' to get rougher as the day went by. Wyman Priddy said the course wa s changing constan t ly , forcing the riders to change their lines between practice and each of the two 30-minute motos. The only thing the riders didn't like were the rocks. • Gary Jones d ido't like the fact that someone sabotaged his Can-Am, either. Preparing to s tart the first moto, a sugar-water mixture wa s discovered in the 250's tank in place of gas-oil. The race was held up to allow necessary repairs and Gary Jones started the first moto. • AMAnesty to Hilltoppers &So Cal By Ma ureen Lee BURBANK, C~L ., MAY 2 Compared to April, the May Distri ct 37 AMA Sports Comm ittee m ee t ing was p eaceful. The s u s p e n ded Hilltoppers a n d S ou th ern California clubs were there in fu ll force to hear Presid en t Ed F arrell an noun c e , as soon as h e o pened t he meeting , that their dubs were agai n members in good stan di ng of th e District, A major upheaval in the Distr ict was kic king out" t he two cl ubs by th e District Board of Directors for failure to pay disputed lan d use fees charged by th e BLM. Bot h cl ubs had co llected th e d ollar -per-rid er an d pl aced th e funds in trust accounts to be given back to the rid ers fo llowing the o utcome of th e BLM Cactus Cats law suit whi ch wen t to court May 6 th. A full report o f this cont rove rsy was in th e April 23rd issue of Cycle New s. A volume of co rresp o nden ce was read, sid ing with the two clubs, In other action, it wa s st ated th at the River sid e BLM office is closed ; the y are m ov in g i t t o Barstow. A dub representat ive asked ab out the re cen t declaration th a t publ ic land is now open unl ess post ed . No o ne had an answe r as to how clubs sho uld now handle thei r runs an d th e ' AMA 's legal counc il, Gen e Wirwahn again came und er fire for ." say ing a wh ole lot but telling us no th in g ," , . , T he me eting lasted less than an h our , en di ng j ust after n ine o'Clock . and the Dist rict awai ts w ha t will happen ' in co ur t on Mon day. •